Eating Mice To Survive: A North Korean Refugee Tells Her Story

Grace Jo and her mother are North Korean refugees who have resettled in the United States. Courtesy of Grace Jo

Walking through the Korean War Memorial in Washington, D.C., Grace Jo remembers a pivotal point in her childhood in North Korea, what she calls ’the almost dying moment.’

On the brink of starvation, she and her brother burned so hot with fever that they could only find relief on the cold concrete floor of their home in rural North Korea.